Hi all, I’m a complete newb to this site and, for my sins, I spend the majority of my time as a musician and sometime artist/designer and it would be great to run something past you all if that’s ok?

I have a band in the UK called “This Burning Age” – we’re releasing 4 EPs over the course of 2014 and me, being the idiot I am coupled with my vaguely arty/borderline pretentious background, decided that it would be fun and somewhat different if I scratch-built an art-book out of untreated steel and offered it to fans as an incredibly short run, Limited Edition alternative to the standard cardboard wallet type EP a lot of bands put out in our position (i.e. very little money!).

Surprisingly the construction of the books themselves is coming on well but recently I thought it might look good if they we’re to come in some sort of wooden presentation box – nothing big or over the top (the books are just 200mm x200mm and approx 50mm deep).

I know next to nothing about carpentry and with the final date for the release now fixed for April 28th I thought I’d look into a couple of ways I might be able to get them done: 1. Finding a good set of instructions and having a crack at them myself or 2. Find some kind soul willing to take the job on while I continue trying to finish off the steel books!

What does everyone think? Worth trying to tackle them myself or should I find an experienced professional – that’s if I can find one who doesn’t charge like a raging bull. I’ve got fairly severe Crohn’s disease which I guess I should mention as it does sometimes get in the way a lot and means I sometimes can’t quite do as much as I’d like due to the pains and tiredness but I happy to give it a crack if you think it might be do-able for a novice? Thanks for reading!

-- The way out is through.

4 replies so far

So basically you need a wood box that is about 8” square by 2” high on the inside; so maybe 9” square by 3” high on the outside or less depending on wood thickness. Do you want a hinged box or a loose lid? What quantity and what kind of budget? You could definitely learn to make them but do you want to be a box maker? If you sell many it could be fairly frustrating unless you have some experience and equipment. Probably best to hire someone.

If you have 2 weeks to make 50, then hire someone. But if you have 2 months to make 10, sure – buy a couple of chisels and a saw, some glue and some wood and if you’re crafty with your hands at all you can do it. Look up Paul Sellers on youtube and watch him make a box in about a half an hour and you’ll get a good idea of the process.

Apologies for the stilted sentences and odd delivery of my first post – never a good idea to write when you’re tired and on a lot of meds! Thanks for the replies so far and here are a few answers to your questions:I’m currently planning on making 20 books per EP release. Release date for the standard EP physical copies is April 28th so ideally I’d like to start releasing the steel books around then as well.A hinged box would be ideal and as far as budget goes I’m trying to keep things down to a minimum – if it’s too much I’ll knock the idea on the head and release them without the box. As to actual figures, I honestly don’t know at this stage, once I start getting quotes I’ll know more. And no, I’d rather not be a box maker! Only because the process of making the books is fairly involved in itself and I’ll be sailing close to the wind as it is to get them finished in time (after the book is put together they each get dipped in a bath of muriatic acid before I finish them by using a chemical process to transfer images, either photographs or paintings I’ve made, onto the steel pages themselves). I’ll try and post up a couple of photos and a short video of the book prototypes so you can get a clearer idea of what I’m talking about. Thanks to everyone that’s read and replied (about to have a look at that Nedson Woodworks link, thank you for that! :) ).